Science Confirms ‘Work Hard, Play Hard’ Is Actually A Thing

Trending News: Hard Workers Really Do Play Harder, According To Science

Why Is This Important?

Because you already know this, but it’s nice to have science on your side.

Long Story Short

A Queen’s University biology professor has published a study that for the first time seems to prove there’s a correlation between working hard and playing hard.

Long Story

Your boss has probably convinced himself by now that he coined the term “work hard, play hard." Truth is, the maxim can be traced back as far as 1827, when someone presumably named Giles O’Sullivan liked to plough an extra field or two before destroying himself on home-distilled whiskey.

But despite its long history in Western parlance, no one has ever proven that the ego-stroking idea actually exists. Until now.

Professor Lonnie Aarssen of Queen’s University, Ontario in Canada has published a study that, for the first time, provides strong empirical support for a correlation between what he likes to call “legacy drive” and “leisure drive”.

Atlantic Records

Surveying over 1,400 undergraduate students at Queen’s University, Aartsen and undergraduate student Laura Crimi asked participants to identify their age, gender, religious affiliation and cultural background. They then asked a series of questions to determine participants’ attraction to religion, parenthood, accomplishment or fame, and recreation.

While there was a degree of correlation between most of the factors listed, it was particularly strong between legacy and leisure activities. Indeed, three distinct types of people emerged: those that were apathetic towards ideas of parenthood, religion, work and leisure; those who were attracted to religion and parenthood and religion but didn’t care so much about accomplishment and leisure. The third group was all about work and play (and family also, in case you think they might just be psychopaths).

Aarsen, a biology professor, puts this correlation down to the evolutionary purpose in humans — basically, it’s a means to divert our attention away from our own mortality. “We, unlike any other animals, are aware and concerned about our own self-impermanence,” Aarssen said in a press release. “Legacy drive and leisure drive have potential to explain our ability to buffer this anxiety … and thus minimise its potential negative impact on reproductive success.”

Quotesgram

So, basically, don’t work or play too hard because it might lead to something else you’re apparently terrified of: an early death.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

What are the wider implications if the work/play harders are indeed addressing some sort of anxiety about their own impermanence?

Disrupt Your Feed

So how many respondents just liked to play hard?

Drop This Fact

The average U.S. Work week is 34.4 hours — which ranks us 16th among OECD countries.